LOS ANGELES, Sep 08, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- National Lampoon, Inc., the most widely recognized brand in comedy, has announced that the film "National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo" has been accepted into the UK Raindance Film Festival. The writer, director, and star of the film, Les Claypool (Primus), will be attending the festival to introduce the film and participate in a question and answer session. The film fits the music focus of the festival perfectly.

Often described as "Spinal Tap meets the Grateful Dead" because it uses the same mock-umentary style of Spinal Tap and focuses on the jamband scene, "National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: The Quest for Festeroo" features rock legends such as the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, Phish's Mike Gordon as well as Warren Haynes and Matt Abts from Gov't Mule.

"This is a huge honor for this film to be chosen, the buzz around 'National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo' has been growing and we are delighted to be able to feature the picture at the festival," stated Daniel Laikin, National Lampoon Chief Executive Officer in announcing the selection.

It also features classic cameo appearances from Seth Green (Austin Powers in Goldmember, The Italian Job) and "South Park"'s Matt Stone. The movie was produced by Jason McHugh (producer of debut features for Trey Parker from "South Park").

Carrying the mantle for the Grateful Dead and Phish are Electric Apricot, Claypool's alter ego's band, as they hit the road to "Festeroo," the fictional pinnacle event of the jam band scene -- and possibly, E.A.'s career. Electric Apricot pokes loving fun at the heirs of classic jam bands and their loyal fans.

National Lampoon plans to release up to four original in-house produced titles per year. Most recently, National Lampoon has released "National Lampoon's Bagboy", "National Lampoon's Homo Erectus", and is currently in post production on "National Lampoon's Ratko: The Dictator's Son" and in production on "National Lampoon's The Legend of Awesomest Maximus." In addition, National Lampoon plans to release up to eight acquisition titles per year. Releases to date have included--"Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell", "Jake's Booty Call" and "One, Two, Many." Distribution is handled independently by National Lampoon, with some titles having broader distribution in partnership with major studios.

The Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo DVD is released today! The DVD features hours of never-before-seen footage, including actor and director commentaries, deleted scenes and bloopers, cast interviews, theatrical trailer, easter eggs and more! Get it now!

So Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo is hitting the final stretch of what will have been a 35 city theatrical tour which we are excited about! When we began our theatrical release we were told we were only getting to hit 10 cities and LA and NY were not on that short list. Since we already hit NYC - LA is our final big fish to fry - BUT theres more!!!Burlington Vermont has held the movie over for midnights friday and satrudays... We have booked Santa Cruz for one special night at the Rio theater March 15th and the movie hits Seattles Central cinema from March 12th thru 16th!!!

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Jan. 31 /PRNewswire/ -- Metal had "This Is Spinal Tap," folk had "A Mighty Wind," and now Jam Bands have "National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo." Taking an endearing and twisted look at the Jam Band scene, the film directorial and acting debut of Primus frontman Les Claypool has screened at festivals and in selected theaters, and will be released on DVD via National Lampoon on March 18, 2008, simultaneously with its soundtrack album.

"National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: Quest For Festeroo" (Hip-O/UMe/BAIT/National Lampoon) features the only known studio recordings of Electric Apricot, a band with no limits, no fear, and no clue -- their anthem "Hey Are You Going To Burning Man?," "Backroads Of My Mind," "Uncle Pete's Party" and "Sugar Train Blues" -- plus their epic live 19-minute "Yog Sagoff," recorded in May 2005 in Mill Valley, CA.

Also heard on "Quest For Festeroo" are the jam gems "Shady Grove" from Grateful Dead legend Jerry Garcia and David Grisman from 1996's SHADY GROVE album, Bob Weir (Grateful Dead, RatDog) with "Playing In The Band" from 1972's ACE, Gov't Mule led by Warren Haynes (Allman Brothers Band) with "Time To Confess" from 2002's THE DEEP END VOLUME 2, Primus guitarist Larry LaLonde with his electronic music masterpiece "Calling All Sand Worms," Michael Franti & Spearhead with "Everybody Ona Move" from 2006's "Yell Fire!," the classic "Fishing Blues" from Henry Thomas, and Stiff Dead Cat with a rockin' tribute to the Dead with their rendition of "Dire Wolf" from 2003's SNAKE OIL.

"National Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot" follows a young UCLA filmmaker yearning to make a music documentary that would redefine the genre. He finds Electric Apricot: drummer-singer Lapland "Lapdog" Miclovik (played by Claypool), singer-guitarist Steve "Gordo" Gordon, keyboardist-singer Herschel Tambor Brillstein, and bassist-singer Steve "Aiwass" Trouzdale. The mockumentary then follows the band as they record their first album and head for the Holy Grail of music festivals, Festeroo. Claypool embarks on his own two-month cross-country tour on February 14th.

A young graduate filmmaker from UCLA set forth to make documentary reflecting an element of contemporary music culture that had yet to be fully examined. The notion was to capture something raw and original. He searched for something unpretentious and genuine, yearning to make a film that would stand out from other music documentaries and potentially redefine the genre. Who he found was a band called Electric Apricot; what he achieved was enlightenment. Unexpectedly in searching for enlightenment, the duality of existence was unveiled.

Electric Apricot has been kicking around the peripheral of the Jam scene for several years now and is comprised of four colorful characters that take themselves far too seriously. Bellowing the anthem "Hey, Are You Going to Burning Man?", the band has recently been offered some opportunities that could potentially break them through to levels beyond their dreams and our young filmmaker is there to document the rise. He follows them from nightclubs to the recording studio and eventually on the road to the Holy Grail of West Coast music events, a festival aptly named "Festeroo". "Festeroo", where the tie-dye flows and the Hula-hoops twirl, becomes the backdrop for this dry, character driven comedy that takes an endearing yet twisted look at the American cultural phenomenon known as the Jam Band scene. Shot documentary style and featuring a talented ensemble of both newcomers and veterans.